New Jersey Governor Expecting $1 Billion From Online Gaming

New Jersey Governor, Chris Christie, is at again. He’s blustering about gaming and spewing information that he can’t and won’t back up. If you remember, last year, Christie famously was going to legalize sports betting in New Jersey no matter what was legal.

“If someone wants to stop us, then let them try to stop us.”

That fight will continue to the Supreme Court. So much for Christie’s brash tone. While sports betting may not become legal in New Jersey any time soon online gaming just went live. It’s gone live in a big way with over 51,000 people signing up in the first few weeks.

More than 14,000 new online gambling accounts were created with Atlantic City casinos since Friday, bringing the total to 51,352 since a trial period started on Nov. 21.

Response for online gaming in New Jersey has been massive. For comparison Nevada has about 1,000 online poker players. Nevada is a much smaller state with no major cities like New York and Philadelphia bordering so take the comparison lightly – it’s just a reference.

It will be interesting to see how many of these accounts stay active and how many more will open in the next year. Chris Christie seems to think that online gaming will produce $1 Billion in revenue by July.

Gov. Chris Christie said today that he still expects online gambling in New Jersey to produce about $1 billion in casino revenue by July 1.

Nobody believes Christie will be right.

Industry analysts have said Christie’s projection — part of the current state budget, which anticipates $160 million in tax revenue from the venture — is far too optimistic….analysts said they expect about $300 million in revenue by this time next year.

In order for Chris Christie to be correct each of the 50,000 players that are signed up must lose $20,000 in 7 months. Even if sign ups double to 100,000 active players each would have to lose $10,000 in that period.

It’s not that this is a lofty goal but it’s irrational. Online gamblers traditionally play much lower limits than people who play in live casinos. You may be familiar with the term micros from the poker world.

I trust industry analysts more than I trust any politician. I hope his budget has a backup plan for the 70% of revenue shortfall that this line item will produce.